Rapturous!

It has been an expensive ordeal applying for a long-stay visa for French Polynesia. We could go with only a tourist visa that would give us 90 days in the islands but the distances in the Pacific are vast and we'd basically only see oceans without any time to visit the islands. The boat can stay up to 3 years but we would have to leave FP for longer than 90 days. The sailing season would be over by the time we returned and Cyclone season would have begun. A long-stay visa allows us at least two years before we would have to leave.

It gets more complicated. France recently contracted with a third party visa processing company called VFS for all their visas. Applications for a visa can only be made, by appointment, in the home city of the applicant. We no longer have a home but that isn't an option. Tant pis, we have to return to San Francisco to submit the paperwork. So Greg spent a whole day hunched over a laptop, wrestling with the website that kept crashing, completing the applications over and over again until he was finally able to book an appointment at VFS in San Francisco. Then he booked the tickets to SFO.

Are you bored yet? There's more.
The application required us to surrender our passports for up to 6 weeks while the visa was being processed. But we live in Mexico so we had to get a second passport in order to return to the boat in Puerto Vallarta.

Amazingly, there is a US consulate walking distance from Paradise Village Marina where we're docked in Nuevo Vallarta. After persuading the officials that we are not nefarious double agents, we had our second passports in our hands in 4 days. It was the most efficient bureaucratic process I had ever seen.

On Thursday, three weeks later we walked into the VFS office in San Francisco, documents in hand. The first thing the officer asked is, "Where are Susan's documents?" Application can not be made for a couple. It is necessary for each application to have bank statements, proof of income, medical insurance documentation and boat registration even though the paperwork is identical. "Oh, but don't worry," she said. "We can copy it for you for a dollar per page." In addition, each applicant has to pay thethe substantial fee. But there was no other option so we paid up.

A couple of hours later we walk out of the office with a feeling of victory. We've jumped through all their hoops and made our offerings from our cruising kitty. We're 95% sure of having our visa in 3 to 4 weeks.

But wait. There's even more.
On Monday, early in the morning we get a phone call from VFS saying that our application has been rejected because it was filed more than 90 days from our anticipated arrival date in the Marquesas. 93 days, in fact. We had to resubmit the applications. At least they called us promptly, but obviously the paperwork had not been sent to the embassy in DC and back in one business day.

Back in the car, we braved the traffic into San Francisco and found parking in a valet-only parking garage. This time we didn't need an appointment but the waiting room was crowded when we arrived. When we eventually got our turn the officer told us that we would have to go to the website to fill out the application again in order to get a docket number for the resubmission of the original paperwork with the corrected date penned in."Oh, and by the way," she says, "you'll probably have to pay the fees again."
Yeah, I know. We were also bewildered.

After an hour on a rented computer at Fed Ex wrestling with the same glitchy website we had not generated an appointment/docket number. We gave up, deciding to throw ourselves on the mercy of the visa gods. The crowds had thinned, probably all sent back to the website, and there was a new officer on duty. He says, "Oh, you couldn't get an appointment. I can make one for you for 28 dollars each." He also told us that we didn't have to repay the fees but we did have to have our fingerprints and photo taken again because we may have changed since Thursday. The good part was that we met another cruising couple applying for a long-stay visa who we will probably meet in the Marquesas because willy nilly, we're going!

The numbers will change so I'm not listing them. These are the expenses so far:
Two second passports with registered overnight shipping costs. Two airline tickets to San Francisco, Bart tickets, Uber, bridge toll, parking, application fees with all the incidentals, Fed Ex printing and computer costs.

And now we wait. We haven't had a phone call yet telling us that we've been rejected. We only have one day left in San Francisco before returning to Puerto Vallarta. Hold thumbs that we've rendered enough holy hecatombs to satisfy the visa gods.